The present invention relates to a musical instrument, and more particularly, to an effector of a guitar.
Various kinds of effectors are used to distort a tone of an electronic guitar.
Such effectors may be classified into an analogue type and a digital type. The latter has an advantage in that use thereof is convenient but has a disadvantage in that a sound quality thereof is low. Thus, in recent years, an effector using an analogue scheme tends to be mainly used.
The effector using an analogue scheme, which refers to a compactor, includes: an input unit 3 that receives an input signal from a guitar a or another guitar effector; an output unit 4 that transmits an output signal to an amplifier b or another guitar effector; and a foot switch 5 that controls a turn-on/off state of the corresponding compactor (see FIGS. 1 to 10).
Since a player adjusts a turn-on/off state thereof during performance through the foot switch 5, the effector refers to a guitar pedal.
For example, in case of backing for expressing rock music or solo performance, effectors such as an overdrive effector and a distortion effector are required (see FIGS. 1 and 2). In case of arpeggios or strokes, to obtain a clean tone, effectors such as a reverb effector, a delay effector and a chorus effector are required (see FIGS. 3 to 5). When a special effect is required, effectors such as a phase effector, a wah effector and an octave effector are required (see FIGS. 6 to 8), and in other cases, a compressor effector, an equalizer effector, or the like may be used (see FIGS. 9 and 10).
When playing a guitar, a player generally uses a plurality of tones in the same tune, and a combination of a plurality of compactors is required to obtain the respective tones.
For this, the plurality of compactors are previously connected to each other, and each of the compactors is turned on or off by the foot switch during performance to realize various combinations, thereby obtaining a desired tone (since the player does not use his or her hands due to the guitar playing).
When some of the compactors connected to each other are turned on, and the others of the compactors are turned off, the compactors that are turned off are bypassed, and only the compactors that are turned on are combined with each other to obtain a distorted tone.
Since it is difficult to manipulate the foot switches of the plurality of compactors during the performance so as to obtain a necessary tone, a guitar effector loop (a programmable loop) 10 in which a plurality of switches 11, 12, 13, and 14 are installed to allow a user to set a separate combination of the compactors for respective switches has been developed (see FIG. 11).
Since the plurality of switches 11, 12, 13, and 14 are controlled to alternatively act, when one switch is turned on (pushed), other switches are automatically turned off.
For example, a case in which the Nos. 1, 2, and 3 effectors are set for the A switch 11, the Nos. 1, 2, and 4 effectors are set for the B switch 12, the Nos. 3 and 4 effectors are set for the C switch 13, and the No. 4 effector is set for the D switch 14, will be described as follows (see FIG. 12).
When the A switch 11 is turned on, the Nos. 1, 2, and 3 effectors are turned on, and the No. 4 effector is automatically turned off.
When the B switch 12 is turned on, the Nos. 1, 2, and 4 effectors are turned on, and the No. 3 effector is automatically turned off.
When the C switch 13 is turned on, the Nos. 3 and 4 effectors are turned on, and the Nos. 1 and 2 effectors are automatically turned off.
When the D switch 14 is turned on, the No. 4 effector is turned on, and the Nos. 1, 2, and 3 effectors are automatically turned off.
A unique number is set for each of the combinations and stored in a bank so that the unique numbers are selected and used as needed (see FIG. 13).
The above-described related art has the following limitations.
The types of guitar effectors are very various as described above, and thus, there are many kinds of combinations of the guitar effectors. As a result, in the guitar effector loop according to the related art, since the combinations of the guitar effectors are obtained by only the about four selected switches that are previously installed, the limitation is that the choice of combination is too narrow.
Although various combinations of guitar effectors are stored in the bank, since it is necessary to designate the unique number by hands so as to select each of the combinations, it is practically impossible to change the combination during the performance.